Director

Thomas Lilti

France | 2018 | 92 min | French

• Producer Agnès Vallée, Emmanuel Barraux
• Production Company 31 Juin Films, Les Films du Parc
• Screenplay Thomas Lilti
• Cinematography Nicolas Gaurain
• Editing Lilian Corbeille
• Sound Elisabeth Pacquotte- François Guillaume , Raphael Söhier, Jean Paul Hurier
• Cast Vincent Lacoste, William lebghil, Michel Lerousseau,Darina Al Joundi
• Contacts

  Le Pacte

  contact@le-pacte.com

About the Film

Antoine is going through pre-med school for the third time after failing to achieve the required grade — he is adamant that he will not study anything but medicine. Meanwhile, he meets Benjamin, who is in pre-med for the first time, and a friendship undeterred by their different personalities grows between them. While Antoine is constantly obsessed with his grades, Benjamin merely wants to impress his father, who is a successful doctor. They start to study hard together, trying to devise a sure way to a dream that sometimes seems out of reach.

In a very simple manner, the film explores the world of friendship, and what competition can do to it. Antoine views anyone who gets a higher grade than him as a hurdle standing in his way to his goal, so what happens when his friend and study partner — who seems much less invested in this profession than him — becomes that person?

Director Thomas Lilti also manages to critique the demanding educational structure in France, and maybe the entire world, where students are ultimately turned into information-digesting machines in an overbearing community in which the only way to succeed is to exert non-human efforts. That is what happens to Antoine in his last attempt to pursue the profession of his dreams. It also dissects the host of complicated human emotions induced by such an impossible struggle — such as jealousy, contempt, and even hatred.

In the recesses of this journey, which at first appears as a straightforward story about two freshmen, we are gradually exposed to much deeper questions about identity; the transformations this concept can undergo on the way to achieving academic success with the intent of social privilege can often end in the loss of loved ones. This is a film about the value of friendship, and the challenge of holding on to it when the going gets tough.

Amir Ramses